Recommend a Pizza Stone

I'm a long time lurker, first time caller. I've been enjoying my large BGE for about 14 months now and love it. I learn something every time I use it.

A couple days ago, we cooked up some pizza and they turned out the best we've ever made. I think in part due to the 700° temp that we cooked at. The only problem we encountered was that the pizza stone we used broke in two. It was a Pampered Chef stone that my wife has had for years. Luckily, there was enough left of it to finish our last pizza but now I'm in the market for a new stone.

I ran a search but couldn't find anything suggesting one over another. I see that BGE sells a stone but they are slim on details. I think I want something that is thick rather than thin as I believe thermal mass helps.

PC stones don't like going over 450, so you were lucky to get a few cooks out of it. As Quinn says, the CGS stones have a good reputation.

I have a $10 13" stone I bought to get through a weekend over a year ago. Although rated to 500, it has seen 600+ a number of times. I have never heard of trouble with the BGE stone. Ask your dealer what the warranty is, always nice to maintain a relationship with your egg dealer.

Ceramic Grill store... have the 13" and the 16" (A 14" would be perfect as the 16" doesn't leave much space for the hot air to get to the top of the pizza and cook the toppings... on the Large, anyway)

I have an Emile Henry 14.5 inch stone I got from Amazon. It's not real thick but I've been very happy with it. What I really like is the handles, way more convenient if you pull the stone hot. You can also cut right on the stone if you want. Also, FWIW, I did a demo cook not too long ago at the local BGE dealer. We had several eggs going, and doing pizzas on two larges. The setups were basically the same, exceptions were my large had a Hi-Que grate, dealers was stock, mine was using Emile Henry stone, dealer was BGE stone. We were using pre made thin crusts, similar toppings as far as quantity, and same cooking temps. Probably did 25-30 pizzas between the two. The crusts from the Emile Henry seemed to come out more consistent for a given amount of cook time. The dealer himself even commented my eggs pizzas were more "picture worthy". That was just my observation, could have been the stone, the difference in fire grates, or a combination. Hope this helps, clear as mud, right?

Just putting it out there for you but the pampered chef will warranty your stone

It is my understanding they will, but they ask how you are using it when it broke. If you tell them it was on a BBQ at over 450, you might not get a replacement. Depends on how well you know your PC rep, worth a shot.

I also have a bge stone. had it for years and its still going strong. i started out using fire brick splits configured to fit tight together. they work great and you can put them directly on the grate.